Human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system specifically, white blood cells called CD4-positive (CD4+) T-helper cells.
When the immune system is weakened from AIDS, the body may have difficulty fighting off certain cancers or viral, fungal, or bacterial infections, and these conditions may prove fatal.
Signs and Symptoms of Human immunodeficiency virus HIV/AIDS
There are three main stages of HIV infection, each with its own symptoms.
Stage 1: Acute HIV Infection
Within the first two to four weeks after HIV infection, about two-thirds of people will experience symptoms that feel like a really bad flu. As the immune system rallies to fight off the virus, fever may develop along with additional symptoms, such as sore throat, swollen glands, mouth sores, rashes, diarrhea, fatigue, headache, and muscle and joint pain.
Stage 2: Clinical Latency
If the infection goes undiagnosed or untreated, the immune system can bring the Human immunodeficiency virus HIV level down some, but it can’t completely control or contain it; the virus is still active but multiplies more slowly, often without causing any symptoms. This is also called the clinical latency stage, or chronic Human immunodeficiency virus HIV infection, and it can last up to 15 years.
Stage 3: AIDS
If a person goes for years without treatment for HIV, the next and final stage is AIDS.
- Sudden weight loss
- Recurring fever
- Night sweats
- Fatigue and weakness
- Swollen lymph glands
- Chronic diarrhea
- Sores in the mouth, anus, or genitals
- Blotches on the skin, under the skin, or inside the mouth, nose, or eyelids
- Neurological issues, including memory loss and depression
Causes and Risk Factors of HIV/AIDS
HIV is spread by direct contact with certain body fluids from a person with HIV who has a detectable viral load. These fluids are:
- Blood
- Semen (cum) and preseminal fluid
- Rectal fluids
- Vaginal fluids
- Breast milk
In the United States, HIV is mostly spread through sex, particularly anal and vaginal intercourse. People can also transmit HIV by sharing used injection equipment, such as syringes and other paraphernalia.
Mothers can spread HIV to babies during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding.
HIV is a flimsy virus that can’t live for long outside the human body and can’t reproduce without a human host. That means it isn’t spread through saliva on silverware; from kisses on the cheek, hugs, sharing toilets, or closed-mouth kissing; or by mosquitoes, ticks, and other insects.
If a person is on effective antiretroviral treatment for HIV, they can lower their viral load to an undetectable level, at which point they effectively have no risk of sexually transmitting HIV to their HIV-negative partners.
How Is HIV/AIDS Diagnosed?
The CDC recommends that everyone age 13 to 64 get tested for HIV at least once.
People more vulnerable to HIV should get tested more frequently. The CDC defines people in this higher-risk group as those who have:
- Had more than one sex partner in the past year
- Had an HIV-positive partner
- Been diagnosed with or treated for hepatitis or tuberculosis or a sexually transmitted disease in the past year
- Exchanged sex for drugs or money
- Shared injection equipment
Types of HIV Tests
There are lots of options for Human immunodeficiency virus HIV tests. There are tests that analyze saliva, blood, or even urine. Tests screen for different signs of HIV infection: antibodies (proteins your body makes to fight the virus); antigens (proteins on the surface of HIV cells that trigger the production of antibodies); or actual genetic material from the HIV virus.
Which test you take depends on how recently you think you may have been exposed to HIV, how long you want to wait for results, and how you feel about blood draws.
Antibody/antigen test: 18 to 45 days after an exposure
This test, commonly performed in a lab, checks for both antibodies and antigens. Antigens are detectable in the blood before antibodies develop, signaling the presence of HIV. An antibody/antigen test can be a rapid test that uses blood from a finger prick and delivers results in less than 30 minutes. Or it could be a test that uses blood drawn from a vein and delivers results in a few days.
Antibody test: 23 to 90 days after an exposure
An antibody-only test uses a fluid sample swabbed from inside your cheek or blood from a finger prick. These rapid tests and at-home tests can detect HIV antibodies three weeks after exposure at the earliest and deliver results in 20 to 30 minutes. They are also good at detecting chronic HIV.
Diagnosis of AIDS
A person is diagnosed with AIDS when one of two things happen:
- CD4 cell count drops from normal levels of 500–1,200 cells per cubic millimeter to 200 cells or fewer.As the CD4 count drops, usually the volume of Human immunodeficiency virus HIV in the blood, known as the viral load, rises.
- Viral, fungal, or bacterial infections, and cancers, which healthy immune systems can fight off, emerge and worsen. These so-called AIDS-defining conditions are often the cause of death for people living with HIV who are not receiving treatment.
Prognosis of HIV
Duration of HIV
Treatment and Medication Options for HIV
Medication Option
Side Effects of Medication
- Anemia
- Diarrhea
- Headache
- Fatigue
- Nausea
- Nerve problems
- Rash
- Pain
Prevention of HIV
There a number of strategies that can reduce your risk of becoming infected with HIV or greatly lower the odds that you will transmit the virus to an HIV-negative partner.
You can also reduce your risk of getting or transmitting HIV if you and your partner:
- Use HIV prevention medications, an approach called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)
- Take a combination of HIV medicines within 72 hours after you think you may have been exposed, an approach called post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)
- Use condoms correctly and consistently
- Have a circumcised penis
- Never share drug injection equipment
- Limit your number of sexual partners
- Abstain from sex or choose less-risky sexual behaviors, such as oral sex or mutual masturbation instead of anal or vaginal sex
- Get checked and treated for other sexually transmitted diseases